I was out kayaking today. When I returned to Mother’s Beach in Marina del Rey, CA (near The Cheesecake Factory and – I think – Pablo Escobar) off of Admiralty way at Palawan, I saw some sharks in the water. Getting out of the kayak to investigate, I found a lifeguard who said that they were lemon sharks. Another guy said they were nurse sharks. The rays were said to be stingrays. It occurred to me that they didn’t really seem to know; but I called them lemon sharks in the other thread.
I looked up lemon sharks and found that “they are a brownish and yellow color… and prefer shallow water often close to the sandy bottom in lagoons.” It was hard to tell the colour in the shallow murky water. They could have been brown. And the water of the lagoon is shallow and the bottom is sandy. This site says they are commonly found in Australia. Hm. Well, it didn’t say they’re not found in California… But it did say that they are 8 to 10 feet in length, and these couldn’t have been more than four feet long.
The nurse shark is the right size; 2 to 13 feet, which covers the meter-plus length of the ones I saw. It also says they live in warm and shallow water “living near sandy beaches, mudflats, sandbars, and commonly in coral reefs.” Mother’s Beach is certainly shallow, warm and sandy.
One thing I noticed was that one of the sharks I got a good look at (they would scatter as I waded – stealthily, I thought – toward them) had a light-coloured pectoral fin. It looked almost white; or at least very light.
So:
The sharks were small. A meter to a meter and a half.
They were darkish. Could have been brown, or possibly blue.
They live in a shallow lagoon in Marina del Rey, California, in warm water with a sandy bottom.
They were not aggressive and fled at my approach, whether I was on the kayak or wading in the water.
Does anyone know exactly what kind of sharks these were?
Also, were those really sting rays? (Small, about the size of a dinner plate.)
According to Marina Del Rey Anglers “Mako, Thresher, Blue, and Great White all live in local waters around Marina Del Rey. Santa Monica Bay is a rookery for small sharks. They live in harmony with the swimmers and surfers in the bay.”
The round sting ray is the ray I saw. As for the shark, I’ll have to see if I can get a better look at them next time. The link you provided offers a couple of other candidates: the spiny dogfish and the grey smoothhound (which is the wrong colour, but the right size).
Blue Shark
Shortfin Mako
Angel Shark
Thresher Shark
Basking Shark
Sevengill Shark
Leopard Shark
White Shark
Soupfin Shark
Spiny Dogfish
Smoothhounds
And “other species”
I don’t know how many of these are in that area, but to me, sharks are sharks. I don’t like the ocean, partly because there are too many things in it that can eat me. I’m one of those guys with just the right kind of luck that I could be the first guy ever attacked by the one rogue basking shark that tired of plankton and turned maneater.
I SCUBA’d for lobsters once off Newport and although it was cool, it also scared the hell out of me.
Well, there are neither Lemon, no Nurse Sharks in California. I’d say your last two guesses are most likely, with the Brown Smoothhound being another possibility.
Leopard Sharks are also the right size and habitat, but they have blackish or grey barring and blotches on them ( hence the name ).
If the water is muddy, it may be hard to tell the true color. But Grey Smoothhounds are brown to dark grey above: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/mspc008.jpg
I thought about the brown smoothhound, but according to the DFG site it’s more likely to be found north of here while the grey is more likely to be found in Southern California. Also, the largest recorded brown recorded was less than a meter in length.
You know, I came a cross a mask and snorkel when I was cleaning out the closet. I don’t know which box they are in, and the boxes are stacked up in the storage unit. If I could find them I could float around with one of those disposable cameras with the waterproof housing. The trouble is getting close, as they are a bit shy. (Hm… maybe a tin of cat food?)
I’ve gone spear fishing in Santa Monica Bay and caught horn shark and ate them. This has a pretty good shot, and the fish could look yellowish considering light rays:
